It has been a while, huh? Two weeks ago was kinda rough at the Hogar because out of nowhere they started having church service during the time that we were supposed to spend time with the kids. We assumed it was a one time thing, but they kept it up throughout the week, and it continued through this week. But they weren't necessarily consistent with it, so we thought...hmmm...what is going on? Do they have a system, or is it random church visits? We asked, and of course it is random. It all depends on the weather. If it is rainy or cool weather, they will pull the kids from the Rancho (Rancho is a pavillion where most of the kids hang out during the mornings and afternoons either watching television or listening to music) and take them to the capilla (the capilla is the Church that is located in the middle of Hogar set up. I'll try to explain it briefly...the chapel is a circular sized church and from it branches some walkways. These walk ways are covered, but open. They lead to several buildings...6 maybe? They are the administration, nurses/doctor's office, cafeteria and dormatories...and they are all in a big circle surrounding the church...outside of this circle is the Rancho, some class rooms where they hold school for the mentally active students in the mornings, a grassy area and playground, and then the lactantes building (kids on liquid diets with cerebral paulsy) and physical theraphy. Above this buildings (as in up this little bump/hill and up some steps) are the nun's dormitories and then above that a few steps is our little house and another dormitory. Whew...that's all). Where was I? Oh yes...so they take the kids to the Capilla when it's rainy or nice, cool weather. If it is hot and sunny, they stay under the Rancho because that it the coolest place to keep them. Ugh...we're trying to figure out to do so that we can keep busy during our normal 2 hour block in the middle of the day. Otherwise we'd have something like a 5.5 hour down time! BORING!!
Well...I have no idea why I wrote all of that above. But I do want to talk about this a sweet church meeting I went to this past week. I went to a conference/devotional at a stake center (a church building) close to San Salvador. It was about an hour travel (walking to and from the bus stops, switching buses, etc) to get there to see Sister Beck, the General Relief Society President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, give several talks and lessons. It. was. awesome. I LOVED it!! She is an amazing woman. VERY talented and incredibly personable and funny. She spoke in Spanish (she knew Portuguese and learned Spanish from there...so she spoke with a strange American-Portuguese accent:) But I understood everything!) and basically just took questions, told stories, presented lessons/ideas and encouraged and loved the women of El Salvador. She was very entertaining because she would randomly whip out these English phrases when she didn't know a word in Spanish
.
Example: "Como se dice 'cupboard'? (still in Spanish) You know, the thing that holds books..." and then she'd throw her hands in the air after A TRILLION translations were yelled out to her, and she'd say (in English) "Oh you know what I'm talking about!!" and keep going. Haha:)
Another time she told everyone to "stand up, turn around, wiggle...sit down" to get everyone refreshed (she talked for a total of 4-5 hours!! WHEW! Totally worth it though) Haha.
Overall, it was amazing. I felt the spirit just wrap around everyone in the room as she advised and loved the women that she taught. She is very talented and I know that all of the women LOVED that she was speaking Spanish rather than taking it easy and using a translator (which she did struggle with Spanish a little...nothing awful, but she would stumble...I really admired her for it because it totally gave me more guts to try to speak Spanish without fear of doing it wrong. I get SO nervous and scared to speak in Spanish because I always make silly mistakes and it KILLS me. I'd rather not speak than speak wrong...oh such pride!). What a blessing for those women! I mean, how often does a woman, especially a woman in Central America, get to attend a live, intimate question/answer style devotional with the Relief Society President of the entire Church?? Such an opportunities are hard to come by even in Salt Lake City, Utah: the World Headquarters of the Church. Amazing...they loved it! It was a great, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
As she walked out of the stake center, she was CROWDED by women on all sides. I said my hellos as she passed by where I was standing and ended up getting a picture (I felt like such a little annoying, star struck "fan" pulling my camera out...but I was so close and I was dying to prove it...and remember it. Haha:))
She is the blonde there in the middle looking kinda down. See what I mean? CROWDED by excited women to give their saludos.
Just to show how sweet she was. She gave a beso and hug to every woman who went to say hello. You can see how happy everyone to say hello by the expression on the girl's face in the background (this girl is actually in my ward...Angela. She is sweet! I really like her:)).
There you go! There is Sister Beck! Right in front of me, about to walk out the door. No zoom needed. (PS- by looking at this picture, would you guess that she has 12 grandkids? I wouldn't have either, but she is!)
That meeting was on Tuesday. The rest of the week was pretty eventless. Andrew actually went to a fun benefit concert for the Hogar in the city while I was at the church meeting. He said he loved it. He didn't take pictures though! He'll have to tell his story if he wants.
Today we didn't do much...again. I was kind of annoyed today because we weren't doing anything...I get stir crazy because I'm either at the Hogar hanging out with the kids, or just sitting the house planning or doing nothing. I GET SO BORED sometimes and just die to get out of the house and go on a walk, go to Centro, anything. Something to freshen my senses. So Andrew and I decided to go check out this restaurant called Casa de Piedra (house of rock). We have heard good reviews, so we went and it had an amazing view. The food was expensive, but it was still pretty good. Maybe not worth the price, but oh well. Better than making spaghetti again (we make Spaghetti with ranchera sauce pretty much every night...it's easy and cheap, the sauce is spicy, and it fills us up so we like it...but it can get old).
I look very sweaty...why? Well, we walked there, it's humid and hot here at all times, and it was kind of uphill. I sweat like no one's business here.
The end of my very long post!
3 comments:
Cool, thanks for sharing. And the view from that restaurant was awesome.
So, the name of that restaurant reminds of a story: once upon I time in was in Spanish class and we had to tell the legend of Tenochtitlan (I think). It was about this guy looking for like a cloud, and a rock and a snake was on the rock and then the eagle ate the snake and that is where he should live (or something along those lines). I had to use the word 'rock' a good number of times. Only, I had apparently forgotten the word 'piedra' and subconsciously replaced it with 'mierda'... Yeah, Señora and I had a talk after class...
Yeah Sister Beck! That's sweet that you got to go that for 4-5 hours.
And your dinners sound delightful. Spaghetti with ranchera sauce, every single day. Mmmmmm.
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